8lue eyed matador
by TheCrimznFuckr
Summary: How will Tavros fare when he is given another chance to live at near death, courtesy of Vriska?


I did not have that much recollection as to what just happened to me. All that I remembered was that I was in some sort of fight, and now I lay in a muddy bank, trying my hardest to fight the tiredness that haunts me. I did probably deserve this. Okay, maybe I didn't, but it wouldn't have been hard to tell me that I did.

Much to my dismay, I couldn't fight it. It was strange: As I fell asleep, my dream self was awakened, but I was not on Prospit. Instead, I was in this frigid cold void of blackness. This frightened me. Another thing that struck me as strange was that I woke up, but both my dream self and my regular self were up and about. As I was drifting about the freezing black void, I saw a white dot that seemed to be far away. This was beginning to look like something humans would go through when they die. This was obvious to be the case when I found myself drifting towards it. By the time I reached the light with my dream self, I was able to twitch my own left foot.

The light was not an entrance to that human realm called heaven. Instead, it was something that I to be even better: a jousting stadium. I was even complete with my pupa pan outfit. It was too bad I never been in a real jousting match, so I was probably going to die as my dream self as well. This thought did not that much to build my hopes in the situation. Another thing that did no service to my self-esteem was the fact that the only one who had the ability to do this to me was Vriska. I saw no reason why she insisted to do these kinds of things to me. Sure, she kept on using the excuse that she was trying to make me stronger, but at times, it was just really easy to get the feeling that she just did these things to make me miserable. I guess I've brought that also upon myself though. If I hadn't been so spineless and just told that spider 8itch what was what, she would have maybe reconsidered messing with me as easily as she usually does. I guess now it's too late for that…

When I walked into the field, I noticed a hoof-beast that seemed to be standing next to me for quite some time. Surprisingly, my newly functioning legs served me well as my dream self. As I got on, someone who was completely covered in medieval looking clothing handed me a lance. Not just any lance, but the same lance that I would always train with in my lawnring. As I grabbed it, my original self along with my dream-self gained a surge of willpower and courage. I was convinced that I could get myself out of this mud puddle all by myself. Perhaps this sense came from the applause from the souls in the audience, who seemed to be anticipating the jousting match greatly.

The hoof-beast had no reigns, because Vriska, the obvious orchestrator of all of this, knew that I could commune with the animals to serve me. I began to chuckle in desperation knowing that this match was a fight for my soul. As I had my hoof-beast gallop to my respective starting spot, an intimidating, gigantic twenty foot tall knight stormed onto the field on a rampant hoof-beast half the size of my entire hive. I could see the blind, unmitigated rage in its eyes, which sought only to exact revenge for whatever had scorned it. Of course, I tried to tap into its mind to see what I could do to calm it down, but my entire view was severely jaded by all the hazy hatred that it had. I believed that that was the only thing in there. I couldn't at all control the beast if I couldn't see what's there to begin with. Looks like I'll have to do this the hard way. The ginormous hoof-beast exhaled a vicious neigh and had its eyes dilate. I was convinced that I was looking into the eyes of what the humans call The Devil. Despite my own fear that was flooding me, my own steed showed no fear. This showed me that perhaps I should not fear, but have faith in myself. That would be a nice change, considering that the lack of faith in myself is what plagued me my entire life. It was time to make sure that I would not go out as I lived. That would give Vriska too much satisfaction.

As I assessed the massive size of my opponent, I decided that it was best to prove that brain was superior to bronze. I elected to slash at the mighty beast's ankles, and disable it from galloping that way to make the kill easier. It helped that I was small enough to ride under the beast as if it were a tunnel.

While scheming, an abrupt chorus of bugle horns bellowed out of nowhere. I quickly looked to my opponent, who tilted his lance downwards and gain momentum to charge towards me. Panicking at the situation, I steered my hoof-beast to the opposite direction and galloped. The knight simply let out an ominous low toned laugh and chased me in a circle, slowing down only to be slightly slower than me to instill as much fear as he could, which was successful. I found this extremely odd, because if memory served me correct, there was usually a partition between the two jousters as they charged one another, yet this arena was bare. I guess this was a "What had happened to me taking a stand for myself?" I thought. I had to be further motivated to survive or I would become a roasted marshmallow on that warriors lance. My situation had finally been grasped. I knew what had to happen. Rufio was awakened.

"Alright, you want a piece of me?" I muttered angrily as I readied my lance. "Come and get it."

The unforgiving hoof-demon charged at me with that knight's lance screaming my name. As this new wave of determination grew over me, I was able to sit upright in the puddle my real self was sitting in.

The grand knight made another glorious charge at me with his lance. The speed at which I was galloping towards him was not as fast as I could make the horse go, though it seemed like I was at my limit to my opponent. Right before the lance got within 7 meters of me; I had my hoof-beast make a dash, having the edge of lance barely grace my body. This was my chance. I skewered the mighty stallion's leg clean through with my trusty lance. As this happened, I gained good control of both my feet as my real self and managed to grab a branch to help hoist myself up when I gathered the strength to.

This did not seem to hinder the beast that much, but the struggle shown in its face showed that there was a lot of trouble. Above all, this proved to be a huge irritancy. If I could do this to its remaining legs, I thought, I could cripple the beast and slay it as it falls to the ground. I knew that I could. For once in my life, I had great confidence in myself and my abilities.

I tried this method again as we made another charge at each other. However, the knight was aware of my tactic and made his hoof-beast go full gallop. My ploy would not work. Our lances merely deflected off of each other, which shocked me to extremes considering the difference in size. Apperaently, my confidence was translated into raw strength. When this occurred, I was just able to stand with two extremely wobbly legs. I was not ready to give up ceasing this opportunity of gaining my chance at life again. The crowd was going rampant, and this only added to the confidence fueled machine that would kill this monster. In the crowd, something had caught my eye: an enchanting, long haired woman who was dressed in a completely stunning white and detailed dress. As she turned to look at me, I saw that it was none other than Vriska. Only this time, there seemed to be something different about her from usual that made her so beautiful to me now: her eyes were not the usual blue, but appeared to contain the majesty of the ocean itself. I guess this must have been my latent attraction to her that I always kept shrouded under the mentality of her always harassing me. That in mind, I was going to show her that I was going to beat her in her own game and defeat this horrid beast. I came up with another ploy that was sure to not fail. As the gigantic hoof-beast charged at me, I would use my newfound power of strength to spear through the horses throat and into its brain. But first, I had to make several slower charges at him to make him think I couldn't do that last minute dash anymore.

As we made the charges at each other, my real self was able to make advances through the swamp. It was going to be sunset soon if did not hurry. I managed to limp over to the outside of the swamp slowly as I made the many charges.

I was able to gain enough momentum for a very slow, but excruciating walk as the vicious battle unfolded. If I kept up this pace, I was able to at least make it back to Terezi's hive at least. The sun was falling fast. I knew I could make it, though. I had faith in myself.

As if all of my strength had left all at once, I collapsed to the soft grass. A strange thing was that I had lost the view as to what was happening to my dream self, or memory as to what happened to cause the blackness. Had I died? I wasn't dead, because my real self was still coherent, but immobile once again. I began to weep a little. Of course Vriska would do that. Give me a big feeling of grandeur and to make me feel like I was truly capable of being confident and accomplishing things by myself, only to have me die in the end, proving my faith in myself false. She just wanted to super-impose my uselessness and her control over me. In the end though, I began to feel bad for her. She could only bring solace to herself while she was doing this to people. Even Gamzee was able to be happy simply with a horn and some freaky looking posters. All Nepeta needed was to be with Equius. Vriska had to torture someone as defenseless as me into complete and utter submission, even though I have never wronged her. She must have had a rough upbringing if that had to be the case. Oh who am I kidding, this is no time to lift any antagonism from that spider 8itch; it's time to just take my death like a man and get over it. What's done is done and I had to swallow my pride and accept that.

Before I gave up all efforts of living, the memory came back to me as to what happened. I was finally able to make that final charge against the grand beast. It was only a matter of actually doing it. We were at opposite ends of the arena and began to charge. In the middle of my dash, Vriska had once again caught my attention. She turned from the person she was talking to look at me. As she did this, she turned and her hair waved magnificently through the air, emphasizing the beauty of her face and body. She looks at me directly, and smiled charmingly and winked. It was as if all of my focus towards slaying this beast was dropped and now she called for all of my undivided attention, although, this instance was not her mind control at all. This was all me. When I was mystified be her, I realized that I had a match to win. I began to turn my head to the foe, only when I see his lance alarmingly close. Too close. I could not abscond this time. Before I could even consider dodging it, the ginormous lance plunged itself into my chest. As the knight raised his lance up only to thrust me down like someone waving a dish in the air to dry it, it came clear to me that I was not staring into the eyes of the human Devil when looked at the huge hoof-beast, but looked into The Devil's eyes when I saw Vriska's beautiful ocean like irises.

That was the memory of my fate being sealed. Although I knew I did not have the energy left to do it, I stood up again and cried. I had remembered a word from that human language that I liked, it was Spanish. The word was matador, and it meant killer. I looked up into the orange sky and cried: "Blue Eyed Matador!" Having completely drained myself, I dropped dead.

It's not like I actually wanted him to die. All my life I have been trying hard to show him his latent power. Okay, I'll admit, I did have fun messing with him, but I never wanted it to go this far. I had no other chance to show him how good he really was, so I wanted to put my mind control power to good use. I had tapped into his dream self's mind and showed him the last situation he got to fend for himself. All his life, his decisions and actions were decided by me, but it was time that he did things himself. Yes, I did create the big scary knight guy, but I did not control him at all. Tavros was taking care of him all by himself. I wasn't _trying_ to distract him, I was just trying to show him that I believed in him! And Tavros was not gawking at me because I made him do it, that was all him. I wish I could do it over, so that he would not see my stupid self and kill the stupid beast with the gusto he deserved.

I guess I don't deserve to go to his burial. He probably wouldn't want me there anyway. All the other saps recognized that he very much appreciated human culture, so he was buried instead of being left for dead. Not that I blame them at all for having that much respect for the little guy. He was everyone's friend. Even Equius wasn't hesitant to openly weep for such a "lowb100d." Even all the dancestors showed up, even those who weren't in that much contact with him. They all respected Rufioh enough to mourn anyone that he did. That and he always told stories about him. Gamzee of all of them seemed to be the saddest, and I can't even live with myself knowing that I made even the freakish juggalo weep. I know he will be coming to subjuggulate me as soon as he finishes his weeping fit, and actually… I deserve it.

**As some of you can probably tell, this is related to the song "blue eyed matador" By aurelio voltaire. In fact, that song was the soul inspiration of this story :D I hope you guys enjoy this. I wanted to show that Vriska may be a spider 8itch, but shes not as evil as she always is. Also, Tavbro needed a time to shine, so I gave it to him. **


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